Two watchdogs in Ukraine held global respect, with the first one tracking dirty money. The second pursued the people behind that dirty money.
These ‘dogs were independent, resilient, and stood tall as Russian artillery flattened cities.
Now, they’ve been effectively muzzled.
Ukrainian President, Vlodymyr Zelenski, on July 22, signed a law that gutted the independence of both the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed Bill No. 12414 that slashes the independence of the nation’s top anti-corruption bodies. The bill was rushed through the Parliament.
Hundreds of angry protesters, mostly youth, have taken to the streets in Kyiv.
These two institutions were established following Ukraine’s 2014 Revolution of Dignity and developed to ensure that no president, prime minister, or oligarch operates above the law. They weren’t always perfect, but they remained independent.
But no longer.
Zelenskyy’s new law places the two agencies under the control of the Prosecutor General, an appointee who is loyal to the president. Beginning now, if NABU wants to investigate officials or billionaires with political ties, it will need a go/no-go from a person Zelenskyy controls.
The fox approves surveillance on the henhouse.
And the Ukrainian people know about this, all too well.
The First Wartime Protests
When the law passed, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, and Odesa. These protests were Ukraine’s first mass protests of the war, at a time when many thought open dissent was too dangerous and divisive. However, the issue was bigger than politics and war. It was about the country’s soul.
Amid the chants, some protestors held portraits of fallen soldiers. Crowds like that don’t rally over simple legislation; they rally when smelling something foul in the air.
Not an unfamiliar scent.
A Nation Scarred by Strongmen
Authoritarians know how to steal Ukrainians’ futures. For several decades, the Soviet Union controlled every inch of the land by rigging courts, using secret police, and making journalists disappear.
Ukrainians needed to rise again in 2004, when Viktor Yanukovych tried to rig his way into power. This action led directly to the Orange Revolution.
Ten years later, the same Yanukovych attempted to maneuver Ukraine back into Moscow’s orbit, which ignited the Maidan protests that toppled his regime, giving birth to today’s anti-corruption infrastructure.
That’s what makes this betrayal such a bitter pill to swallow. Ukrainians buried their dead in defense of democratic independence, three times in just over a generation. After each occurrence, they swore it wouldn’t happen again.
Under the guise of wartime necessity, that line is easily being crossed now.
The Dangerous Logic of War Powers
Defenders of Zelenskyy call this move “practical,” as centralizing power helps fight Russia. That wartime governments needed to act quickly so that red tape wouldn’t bog them down.
Following that logic leads to a dark history.
Lenin centralized power on the way to winning a civil war. So did France and Pinochet. Each had the same pitch: “It’s only just for now, until the crisis ends.”
That, in reality, is where democracy dies. Like love, it doesn’t end with a bang, but with a signature.
Zelenskyy had no evidence that either NABU or SAPO was impeding the war effort. Those two watchdogs were working cases against oligarchs who were skimming the military budgets, selling defective equipment, or laundering aid.
In 2023 alone, NABU recovered billions of hryvnia lost to graft. Bloody hell, if anything, Ukrainians need stronger war oversight, not weaker.
This leads to one question: Why now?
Follow the Power
The new law worries Western diplomats. The European Commission warned that weakening those agencies might derail Ukraine’s bid to join the EU. G7 donors have been reviewing aid packages, and quiet rumblings of concern in Washington suggest that even stalwart Ukraine backers were alarmed at such a naked power grab.
So, why in the hell would Zelenskyy risk everything?
One version says it’s about consolidating control over investigations that have inched too close to the presidential circle. Others think it’s a signal to the oligarchs that the game’s rules have changed.
Again.
“They do not want to return to the times of pro-Russian governance in Ukraine.”
President Zelensky signed the bill immediately and without hesitation. The protests mean nothing. This is the leadership saving democracy in the West.
The Reason Given
Zelensky said they were ridding the infrastructure of Russian influence. He claimed Russians are still getting information from the agencies.
“The anti-corruption infrastructure will work. Only without Russian influence does it need to be cleared of that. And there should be more justice,” he said on X.
Regardless of the reason, these lines of thought are incompatible with the democratic values that Zelenskyy once championed. He wore those values like armor during his Hollywood-approved speeches: The values that earned him global praise as a wartime leader.
It’s with this mindset that values are negotiable.
A Line Crossed
What Zelenskyy did wasn’t a stumble; it was a choice. It was a deliberate turn away from objective transparency and accountability, toward something the Ukrainian people have seen before and fought to escape.
That authoritarian line wasn’t something Zelenskyy simply approached. He crawled across it, while it was covered in Western medals and praise. This is what makes this more dangerous, not less, because when the man at the center of global admiration started dismantling institutions that were built to check his power, people didn’t just lose faith; they lost the very argument for what the fight matters for Ukraine.
What’s the point? Zelenskyy gutted the freedom inside his country’s borders: If its own president is gutting freedoms inside the country, what’s the point in defending those very same borders?
Final Thoughts
The world has been backing Ukraine’s war with treasure, weapons, and blood because it has believed in their cause. But if that cause becomes indistinguishable from the systems that have been opposed, then the narrative crumbles.
This new ruling was never about land; it was about the law, liberty, and about people rising and saying, “Never again.”
I like writing about Zelenskyy nearly as much as you enjoy reading about the infantile, short comedian. The man loves the spotlight, wearing off-the-rack camouflage clothing as he appears before Congress, when the petty tyrant couldn’t even wear a tie!
Now, the same Ukrainians are in the streets again, warning each other and us that what they built is being broken down from within.
Slowly, quietly, and legally.
Until it isn’t.
Mainstream Media’s So Full of It, We Should Charge Rent.
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